DNC Day One: Democrats Tout Progress Under Obama

Democrats opened their national convention Tuesday with a series of broadsides against Republican nominee Mitt Romney and a checklist of promises delivered, they say, by President Obama in spite of the worst economy in more than half a century.

While saying more work must be done, one speaker after another touted the progress under the Democratic incumbent and contrasted it with the tried-and-failed policies they forecast under a Romney administration.

“Republicans tell us that if the most prosperous among us do even better, that somehow the rest of us will, too,” Julian Castro, the night’s keynote speaker, said in remarks prepared for delivery to thousands of delegates inside the Charlotte arena.

“First they called it ‘trickle-down.’ Then ‘supply side.’ Now it’s ‘Romney/Ryan,’ or is it ‘Ryan/Romney?’ ” Castro said, referring to Wisconsin Rep. Paul D. Ryan, the GOP vice presidential nominee and architect of the House GOP’s budget plan.